The Harbour...Chapter 27: Tell me this isn't happenning
As Carolyn walked across the kitchen towards the family room, she heard shouting coming from behind the double doors. She slowed in her tracks, coming to a stop outside.
“You want her to be alone for the rest of her life?” She heard Maya yell.
“I didn’t say that!” Joel’s voice sounded shrill.
“Wouldn’t you rather she be with someone we know and like?” Maya shouted.
Carolyn heard someone walking towards the door. She hesitated. It was too late to walk away.
The footsteps halted.
“You would say that, because she’s marrying your real father! Doesn’t that just make you the perfect family!” Joel said, his voice now low and almost feral.
The door cracked open, and Carolyn saw his fingers gripping its edge, his knuckles white. He was less than two feet away from where she stood. Her heart was thumping against her chest.
“This is not about me Joel!” Maya spat. “It’s about Mom being happy! You are being so monumentally SELFISH!”
Joel suddenly swung the door open, almost running into Carolyn who was rooted to the spot.
“M...Mom,” he stammered, his face twisted in shock.
Carolyn felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her.
“Y...you w...weren’t supposed t...t...to hear that,” he said, his lip trembling.
She reached to touch his arm but he moved past her quickly and ran from the room.
“Mom!” Maya gasped behind her.
Carolyn glanced away from Joel’s retreating back to look at her daughter.
Maya’s face was flushed, and her eyes were shining. Behind her, her younger sister Caitlin stood, gulping for breath her eyes puffy. She had obviously been crying.
The vein in Carolyn’s temple was pulsing so rapidly she was sure it was making her hair move. She pressed her finger to it, and turned to face Maya.
“What on earth is going on?”
“It was nothing mom. Just a misunderstanding.” Maya whispered, sounding breathless.
Caitlin, who had moved to join them near the door, gaped at her big sister.
“I heard what you guys were saying,” Carolyn said, her voice sharper than she expected.
“It...it...he...” Maya stuttered.
“He was being mean about you!” Caitlin wailed.
“Shut up, Caitlin!” Maya snapped.
Carolyn’s stomach knotted.
“Maya!” She chided, frowning at her daughters
Her children bickered but they were never rude to each other.
“It was nothing mom,” Maya said, glancing back at Caitlin with a glare.
But Caitlin was crying again, and not about to stop now that she had started.
The whole story tumbled out in between little sobs.
They had been watched TV. Caitlin had taken the call from Carolyn and then passed on the message to her siblings that she was with Uncle Marco and would be home before bedtime.
Rolling his eyes, Joel had muttered, “We might as well get used to her being out until all hours of the night now that she has a man.”
Maya had sat up from where she lay on the floor in front of the television.
“What did you say?” She’d asked sharply.
Joel had defiantly repeated his comment and the argument had started.
Caitlin had never seen her siblings argue, and as the confrontation escalated, she had gone into the kitchen to call Carolyn.
Maya was now scowling at Caitlin.
Carolyn was stunned. She knew that her daughters could be hot-headed, but she would never have believed that her soft-spoken son was capable of such hostility if she hadn’t just heard it for herself.
“Mom. I’m sorry. I...I egged him on,” Maya whispered, her eyes were filled with tears.
“Oh honey,” Carolyn said, reaching to wrap her arms around her daughter.
“Change makes our emotions go crazy,” she said, hugging her tightly.
Caitlin sniffled next to them.
Carolyn gently released Maya and turned to Caitlin arms outstretched.
Her youngest child, who she always believed to be her most stoic, was awash with tears as she flung herself into her arms.
Carolyn held her, patting her back for a few minutes until the sniffling stopped, and then let her go tenderly.
She took a deep breath.
“I’ve got to go and check on Joel. Maya you’re going to need to apologize to him before you go bed.”
“Apologize?” Maya gasped.
“He’s hurting sweetie, and unkind things were said on both sides. He’s going to have to say sorry to you too.”
“But...” she bit her lip frowning.
Carolyn glanced at her watch. It was heading for 11:00.
“You and Joel don’t fight, and you said some really miserable things to each other, and that’s just the part I heard,” Carolyn said softly but firmly.
Maya gave a resigned sigh, and nodded. As loving a mother as Carolyn was, she was no pushover when her mind was made up. Her children knew better than to argue with her once she gave an instruction.
The girls disappeared to get ready for bed, and she stood alone in the kitchen.
She felt as though the walls were closing in on her. What was she to do now?
Taking a deep breath she pulled her phone from the clip on her waistband and sent a short message to Marco:
“Home. Shaping up to be a long night. Will talk tomorrow.”
“Should I have said, ‘I love you?’” She asked herself after she hit send.
Her head was throbbing. She didn’t know what to tell him right now. She pinched her nose, and slid the phone back into its clip, heading for the stairs in the front foyer.
A moment later she stood in the doorway of Joel’s bedroom. It was empty.
So was his bathroom.
She moved from room to room, her heart beating rapidly.
It didn’t take long for the girls to hear her moving around opening doors, and looking at each other anxiously they joined her.
Downstairs Carolyn tapped on the door to Myrtle’s private quarters. She was watching TV...alone. She joined the room to room search.
Twenty minutes later, it was clear to all of them that Joel was not in the house.
Carolyn dialed his cell number. There was no answer.
With the panic rising in her throat, Carolyn dialled another number. A man’s voice answered and she burst into tears.
“Joel’s run away!”